The governor of North Sumatra and the district head or bupati in the Mandailing District recently declared a new national park in Northern Sumatra, making way for what local officials and communities hope will be a declaration at the national level and hence funding support from the national government.

The declaration of Batang Gadis National Park, encompassing 108,000 ha at the southern end of the Northern Sumatra conservation corridor, is certainly the fastest in Indonesia's history, according to Indonesian conservationists. Whereas most of the country's parks have been declared in a top-down process initiated by the national government, this is one of the first under Indonesia's decentralization of natural resource management.

This protected area outcome emerged with Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) support, as it was highlighted as a conservation priority and opportunity during a five-year vision mapping process led by Conservation International (CI) Indonesia with area stakeholders. Further impetus arose from severe flooding that killed more than 200 people in the North Sumatra resort area of Bukit Lawang in November 2003. The bupati who made the declaration said he wants to protect his people from such disasters but also to leave a legacy for his grandchildren and their children.

The CEPF Donor Council recently approved a $7.3 million ecosystem profile and investment strategy for the partnership to expand investments to the northern region of Mesoamerica, predominantly covering Belize, Guatemala and Southern Mexico.

Northern Mesoamerica is part of the Mesoamerica biodiversity hotspot, which spans most of Central America and encompasses all subtropical and tropical ecosystems from central Mexico to the Panama Canal. The new strategy and spending authority complements our existing profile and strategy for Southern Mesoamerica: Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

Final endorsement of the new five-year strategy is expected from Global Environment Facility focal points in the relevant countries within the next few weeks. CEPF grants can only be disbursed once this endorsement is secured. In the meantime, CEPF is designing a coordination mechanism in the region and starting to meet with potential partners to discuss project ideas.

A survey team recently recorded the Critically Endangered Sakalava rail (Amaurornis olivieri), one of Madagascar’s rarely seen birds, during a capacity-building project that included targeted surveys at high priority Important Bird Areas (IBAs).

The sighting of the bird at Lake Kinkony was an added bonus to a BirdLife International initiative to establish a Malagasy organization as an official partner, a long-term project which will help meet a critical need for conservation capacity building in Madagascar. Ultimately, the project will also help build a national constituency for bird and biodiversity conservation in this hotspot.

The project teamed up a working party of conservationists under the name BirdLife International Madagascar Project (BIMP) and members of Asity, a Malagasy bird conservation nongovernmental organization (NGO).

“Progress has been slow but steady,” Asity President Julien Ramanampamonjy says. “Now, however, the partnership between BIMP and Asity means the two organizations can better complement each other and jointly access various sources of funds, such as those from CEPF, to greater effect. I hope we can have a much greater impact on decisionmakers to conserve the biodiversity of our country, in particular the birds of Madagascar.”

Over the course of a year, the Malagasy team received training in institutional development, project management, finance, communications, database management and technical skills through on-site surveys such as the one that discovered the Sakalava rail, amongst other species.

“It shows that what can seem to be largely office-based capacity building actually allows teams to get out in the field and achieve important results for conservation,” says Roger Safford of BirdLife International.

With few established bird conservation NGOs in Madagascar, there has been little influence at policy level. Now, however, in the collaboration of Asity and BIMP there is the nucleus of a bird conservation organization that in two years time may be eligible to join the BirdLife Network and benefit from the authority, support and expertise that this could bring.

The new BirdLife partner would ultimately be equipped to implement communication, advocacy and awareness-raising programs; collaborate effectively with other national and international organizations and the Malagasy government; increase private sector support for conservation in Madagascar; and conserve important sites, species and habitats.

CEPF supported the capacity-building phase of this ongoing project as part of our strategic approach to integrate local groups and individuals in the management of protected areas in the hotspot.

Learn more:

• Read the final project completion report from the CEPF-supported phase of this initiative.
• Related story: BirdLife to Build Constituency for Conservation in Madagascar

Despite damaging encroachment on its fish diet and forest habitat, the Madagascar fish eagle—one of the rarest birds of prey—is making a tentative comeback thanks to the guardianship of local fishing communities as part of a project by The Peregrine Fund in Madagascar.

The Peregrine Fund is assisting with the legal transfer of control and management of natural resources from the Malagasy government to indigenous communities and the associations created to represent their interests.

Following the start of work by the community associations to more closely monitor and conserve fish populations and protect wetlands and forest habitat, surveys in the three adjoining freshwater lakes of Ankerika, Befotaka and Soamalipo have identified 18 male and nine female Madagascar fish eagle and now also seven fledglings.

A new guide to private conservation tools is now available as part of a project by Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law) to advance conservation of the Vilcabamba-Amboró conservation corridor in the Tropical Andes hotspot.

The manual, showcased at a special round table in January hosted by the National Institute of Natural Resources (INRENA), outlines private conservation tools available in Peru and the application steps. The manual and lessons learned from this experience in Peru could also prove valuable in Bolivia and other countries.

Principally the tools consist of:

• concessions for ecotourism, management of wildlife or non-timber products
• concessions for non-profit activities such as forestation and reforestation
• declaration of private conservation areas
• private management of natural protected areas
• ecological easements

Private conservation areas are aimed at landowners who want to limit the use of their land in order to support conservation for the future or who want to maintain the quality of the products they expect to obtain from the sustainable use of their property. The landowner agrees to self-imposed restrictions on the use of the land, but benefits from the positive public perception associated with this kind of conservation activity.

Private management is for NGOs in partnership with the government whereby the NGO acts as administrator of the protected area plan. The ecological easement is appropriate for those who wish to legally protect the land from other uses.

Recognizing the need for a wider understanding of private conservation tools to make the most of the legislation available, SPDA has worked closely with INRENA as part of this CEPF-supported project. INRENA is part of the Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the management of Peru's protected areas and biodiversity.

“We need to encourage private landowners to use these tools to show that conservation use of the forests is a real alternative so we can discourage the other uses that cause deforestation and loss of biodiversity,” says Pedro Solano of SPDA.

Until recently the authorities have not actively promoted the concessions. One of the major results of a series of SPDA workshops attended by representatives of INRENA, private landowners, campesinos (agricultural workers), indigenous communities, local authorities, NGOs and tourism operators is that INRENA staff now have a greater understanding of the private conservation tools and can advise on and promote them.

Following the workshops, INRENA received more than 25 requests for accessing Concessions for Ecotourism and 13 for Concessions for Conservation.